I've been considering eliminating most of my liquid cutting oils from my shop and replacing them with solid or gel options. Has anyone on this list done that? Do they work as well and/or what machining operations simply don't work with them? My main motivator is less mess and ease of cleanup.

I have no experience with the solid cutting lubricants. I currently use the following for cutting and tapping in my shop, roughly in order of most use:
*Magic Tap Pro-Tap
*Magic Tap Aluminum
*WD-40
*Park Tools Cutting Fluid---bicycle manufacturer specific, but I've used it on occasion with HSS tooling on the lathe/mill.
*Lastly, a Flex-Hone oil that I don't intend to replace. I only use it for honing operations anyway, which is not all that often.

Any experiences with these type products are appreciated. I rarely hear them spoken of. I don't know if that means they are no good (so not used or recommended)... or if most are like me and have never tried them. One of them jumped out at me from a catalog right after cleaning up my mill one day. It got me wondering :)

doctor demo

05-24-2010, 01:38 AM

I just discovered CRC foaming cutting fluid, but have not tested it thoroughly yet. I did use it to single point a 1''-8tpi X 14'' long cable socket. It did a fairly good job but I need more than one job to call it.